2011 Bass Angler Information Team - Alabama Department of ...

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TOURNAMENT PERMITS
The Alabama Division of Wildlife & Freshwater Fisheries does not
require tournament organizations to secure tournament permits for any of
their events. However, the Alabama Marine Police requires a Marine
Event Permit for any event (including bass tournaments) with more than
100 boats participating. Applications can be obtained from the Alabama
Marine Police free of charge by calling (334) 242-3630, and must be
completed and submitted to them at least 15 days prior to the event.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also requires a Special Use
Permit for bass tournaments with more than 10 boats which are held on
any of their reservoirs. Corps permits must be submitted 30 days prior to
the event, and can be obtained from your local project office or from their
website at: http://bwt.sam.usace.army.mil/specialevent.htm.
CORPS OF ENGINEERS ANNUAL DAY USE PERMITS
Annual passes can be obtained from the guard shack at all park
entrances, or by contacting your local Corp of Engineers Resources
Management office. These passes allow you to use any boat ramp
operated and maintained by the Corps of Engineers, nationwide. The
charge for these permits is $30 and is good for one year from the date of
purchase. Local and regional offices are listed below.
Alabama River Lakes Site Office (Hayneville) 334-872-9554
Millers Ferry Resource Office (Camden) 334-682-4244
Holt Resource Office (Peterson) 205-553-9373
Black Warrior/Tombigbee Project Mgmt. Office (Tuscaloosa) 205-752-3571
Demopolis Site Office (Demopolis) 334-289-3540
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Office (Carrollton) 205-373-8705
TRAILER TOURNAMENTS
Any tournaments where rules permit anglers to fish in various water
bodies and then bring their catch to a particular lake for a weigh-in where
fish are then released alive into that body of water are in direct violation of
Alabama’s Public Water Stocking (220-2-.129) regulation. Moving live fish
from one lake to another can have a number of detrimental consequences;
examples include 1) moving fish caught from lakes with consumption
advisories into lakes without advisories, 2) introducing genetically inferior
strains of spotted bass into our world-class spotted bass fisheries of the
Coosa River, 3) introducing diseases such as the Largemouth Bass Virus
which decimated many of our bass fisheries in Alabama beginning in the
late 1990’s, 4) diluting the genetic benefits of our Florida bass stocking
program, and 5) introducing non-native, potentially harmful species into
lakes where they do not currently exist.
However, it is important for anglers to know that only the act of
releasing fish into a body of water other than where they were caught is
illegal. If tournament organizations want to continue to offer these
types of tournaments to their competitors, they are certainly free to do
so as long as the fish brought in from other reservoirs are not
released there. If you participate in one of these tournaments, do not
release your fish into that lake if you did not catch them there.
Your fish can be eaten, donated to a charitable organization such as
an orphanage, or returned to the reservoir from which they were
caught. Fish can only be moved legally from one reservoir to another
if they are transported by boat through a navigable lock.
CATCH-AND-RELEASE
Access area creel surveys conducted by Wildlife & Freshwater
Fisheries biologists have revealed a significant decline in bass
harvest rates, statewide. In 2009, nearly 100% of all bass caught
from public waters were released.
As the catch-and-release ethic has evolved during the last 20
years due to intense promotion by tournament organizations and
participants, many well-intentioned anglers have become so
passionate about this angling ethic that they feel a moral obligation to
release every bass they catch, which often leads them to make some
poor choices with regard to the handling of their fish.
An unfortunate consequence of catch-and-release is that
tournament anglers are often so focused on releasing their fish alive,
that they sometimes fail to recognize when a fish is too far gone to
survive the stress. Making this mistake can result in numerous dead
fish floating in the water around the boat ramp on the following day.
The number of complaints received by ADCNR accusing tournament
anglers of killing and wasting fish during organized bass tournaments
is on the rise, so please encourage your anglers to be aware of this
growing problem, and consider adopting tournament rules that
discourage the release of fish in poor condition following bass
tournaments.
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